The «Multivan Merida Biking Team» finished off it’s preparations for the mountainbike worldcup with two podium finishes at the MTB Bundesliga race in Heubach, Germany. Norway’s Gunn-Rita Dahle won the women’s race despite a flat tire, distancing Russia’s Irina Kalentieva and her team mate Nina Göhl by two minutes. In the men’s race, the ever improving Moritz Milatz seemed to be on course to a podium finish for quite a long time. The young rider from Freiburg clinged to the fourth position until lap nine, when he crashed due to a flat tire and lost three positions. Ralph Näf, who used a new carbon-fibre fullsuspension bike in Heubach for the first time, even suffered more bad luck: After having punctured a tire for the fifth time, he was driven to despair and stepped out of the race. José Hermida did not start in Heubach, chosing to prepare himself for the upcoming worldcup races in Spain instead.
In the coming weeks, the Multivan Merida Biking Team has the worldcup races in Madrid (ESP), Spa (BEL) and Fort William (GB) on it’s schedule. Gunn-Rita Dahle wants to continue her winning streak and to place herself on top of a worldcup podium for the 24th time. Nina Göhl’s build-up for the worldcup races has proven to be exactly on schedule, and given her good condition a top-ten finish is a very realistic goal for her.
In the men’s competition, José Hermida and Ralph Näf are amongst the group of top favourites. Both athletes have won a worldcup race respectively last season, and both are in excellent shape. Madrid’s race is obviously one of the season’s highlights for Hermida, as the frenetic home crowd serves as a very special setting for him. But the real surprise could be delivered by Moritz Milatz in one of the next worldcup races: This young German is getting faster all the time, and he only missed out on podium finishes in some recent races due to mechanical problems.
Multivan Merida Biking Team’s race schedule:
14. Mai 2006: MTB Worldcup Madrid (E)
21. Mai 2006: MTB Worldcup Spa (B)
27. Mai 2006: MTB Worldcup Fort William (GBR)
Results MTB Bundesliga Heubach, Men
1. Fredrik Kessiakoff (SWE) 1.54.25
2. Christoph Soukup (AUT) 1.57.57
3. Torsten Marx (GER) 2.00.04
4. Martin Kraler (GER) 2.01.08
5. Bas Peters (NED) 2.01.35
6. Stefan Sahm (GER) 2.02.04
7. Moritz Milatz (GER) 2.02.36
8. Jochen Käß (GER) 2.04.07
9. Martino Furet (ITA) 2.04.15
10. Johannes Sickmüller (GER) 2.04.33
DNF: Ralph Näf (SUI)
Results MTB Bundesliga Heubach, Women
1. Gunn Rita Dahle (NOR) 1.36.58
2. Irina Kalentieva (RUS) 1.38.59
3. Nina Göhl (GER) 1.42.37
4. Adelheid Morath (GER) 1.43.32,8
5. Ivonne Kraft (GER) 1.43.32,9
6. Tereza Hurikova (CZE) 1.46.09
7. Lene Byberg (NOR) 1.46.17
8. Hanka Kupfernagel (GER) 1.46.57
9. Elisabeth Osl (AUT) 1.47.41
10. Katrin Schwing (GER) 1.48.23
Fotos by: Armin Küstenbrück, Copyrights by: Multivan Merida Biking Team